Essential Service

A few days ago, I attended a video conference with the rest of my organization. I can now breathe a sigh of relief, because Extend-a-Family has, as an organization, been approved as an "essential service".  I have the paycheque to prove it.

It's the beginning of the fiscal year, which means we get our funding renewed, and it's a pretty anxiety-provoking time for that to happen. But we're keeping a flat rate on our funding from last year, which means that, hypothetically, I should be financially secure for a year.

I was pretty sure that "Famiy Home" which concerns itself with housing people, would be fine, because without it, many immunocompromised people would be left without financial support or homeless. In that vein, I felt that some Finance and Information Technology staff, as well as people working in high-end leadership positions would be alright.

But I provide front-line work and one of the organization's first moves was to close us down.

So what kind of "essential service" can I provide?

Looks like some of my work is being reallocated. So for example, Finance is especially busy right now, not just due to the change in work climate, but also because it's the end of our fiscal year. So apparently there's some work that I'm allowed to do surounding that.

Otherwise, we will be providing support to our members who are currently living in isolation by connecting with them socially via phone or video chat, helping them connect with their friends and support remotely, and giving them coping strategies. I think helping our members cope with physical distancing is the core of what we do now that is considered an "essential service".

We also get to make some decisions regarding funding. For example, we just got approved for a furniture grant. It's a really weird time to get that, because we're deciding how to furnish a building that no one is allowed to enter, but there's some discussion surrounding that. There's also some self-development stuff we can do, with recommended literature that is supposed to strengthen our competencies.

I plan on putting in a genuine effort. I wish I had the material here to buid a home office.

It's weird how much there is to talk about this. I haven't even talked about how the rest of the world is adapting, except that it started in China and Italy got hit hard.

The new hotspot is the United States, which has the highest number of cases currently. China, which used to have the highest number, is now number three, and their rate of new cases is really low. They may be on the other side of the curve at this point. It would make sense that they would get there first, since the virus originated there.

India is doing weirdly well. For a long time, China had the most cases, which made sense because they have the largest population, and the United States had the third highest number, which made sense because they have the third largest population. If that logic stands, you would expect India, the country with the second largest population, to have the second highest number of cases.

But number two is Italy. India is #41. They are crushing it, and making us Canadians look bad with our spot at #15.

Russia is also doing suspiciously well at #33. What's the obligation to report numbers? I know that actual numbers for infected cases are much higher, because some people may not be symptomatic, and some people with the infection are not tested because we don't have enough tests or manpower, so the numbers are influenced by how much testing is being done.

There was a cruise ship called the Diamond Princess that got infected and they quarantined the ship for a month. Do you want a ghost ship? Because that is how you get a ghost ship.

There was a game that used to be popular called Pandemic where you built a disease and tried to kill the human population. There was a meme about how difficult it was to get into Madagascar, because of how isolated it is and how quickly they would close their borders.

So I've been keeping an eye on Madagascar, and yeah, it has a few cases. Currently there are no cases in Iceland or our province of Nunavut. Humanity will survive! Because Iceland will repopulate us!

It's gotten into Mali as well, which I'm only talking about because I have a special relationship with that country. Honestly, I'm not too worried about them. Places like Bamako, Dogan, and Timbuktu might get hit, but the bulk of their population is in the form of scattered subsistance villages. I used to joke that Karadje would be the place I'd want to be in the case of World War Three, and the same logic applies here. No real travelling happens and they know how to live off the land. Only the educated Malians knew that World War Two even happened, because the so called "world war" never really reached them. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people over there don't even know about what's happening to us.

They have also dealt with pandemics in the past, and say what you will about the country, they champed Ebola. They were right in the belt that got hit the hardest, and not only did they not close their borders, they invited infected people and were imperative in the treatment and control of the illness. Obviously we have no cure for the Coronavirus yet, but at least they have shown as a nation, a strong competency in adapting to international sicknesses.

I got a smart comment on my previous post about my question regarding why liquor stores and hotels are considered "essential services" while vetiranary clinics are shut down. The likely reason is because a lot of medicine and equipment used at vets are transferable to hospital settings. So vets and hospitals are connected under the healthcare umbrella, and if hospitals are so swamped that they can't perform a scheduled prostate surgery on my roommate, there's no way they're going to prioritize animals. So it's uncomfortable, and I'm not commiting to a perspective but I have to respect the reality, and it's actually a pretty logical line of reasoning.

Community centres are now being used as temporary homeless shelters. That is probably very helpful for our homeless community and we should provide more services for them, and I don't mean to be callous, but is that really addressing this specific concern? We're bringing people together in crowds...

I realized that I didn't really explain what a State of Emergency in Waterloo Region means. It just means that they can enact measures further than what has been stated by the Ontario Government. The example they gave was to have bylaw officers patrolling and confronting people who aren't adhering to social distancing, but they haven't gotten that far yet. A logical next step would be to ban all non-essential travel in and out of Waterloo Region, but I'm not sure that they're allowed to do that.

One element that I forgot to speak on, was the forced closure of most religious gatherings due to the "no events of over fifty people" rule. There is such a focus on the right to religious expression in Canada, that telling religious folks that their practice is "non-essential" feels very uncomfortable. Most religious communities have a history of attempted oppression, and it usually doesn't work because people have faith that is stronger than fear to their bodily selves. Also, I'm sure that people now more than ever want to seek spiritual support and connection, looking at the higher urpose of all this, dealing with their fear and grief.

I actually haven't heard much religious drama. Lee-Anne's church already had an online service, and they are continuing their Sunday morning services online while in quarantine.

When I was asking her about it, I really learned about my ignorance to most things in that realm. I was like "Is your religious leader going to have to go on Employment Insurance because his service is considered non essential?"

And she was like "He doesn't get paid by the government Gryphon!"

"But how does he make a living, and how does the church make money for maintenance?"

"Through donations"

"People donate enough money to pay living wages and maintenance fees?!"

"Haven't you heard of the Separation of Church and State?!"

"No"

"Yes you do! You must!"

"No"